Solar technology presents a viable green source of energy as an alternative to fossil fuels. This is particularly the case for geographic areas that have a high amount of daylight and/or higher than average fuel costs, such as Hawaii, California, N.Y., etc.
An ongoing obstacle to the adoption of solar panels as a home energy solution remains the expense, particularly in the purchase of the components and the installation. A typical residential solar system will include a number of solar panels mounted on a roof and connected by electrical cables to a junction box. The output of the junction box is then fed to load distribution center for internal use. Electrical cable between the solar panels and the junction box are cut to length, and spliced ends of the wires are connected to terminals using generally known methodologies familiar to the field of electricians.
Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, an example of a prior art mounting methodology is shown. Solar panels (not shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B) are supported by aluminum extension tubes 102. The extension tubes are mounted via bolts 104 to a vertical side of an L-bracket 106. The horizontal side of L-bracket 108 is mounted via a lag bolt 108 into a mount 110 on a roof 112. The lag bolt 108 penetrates into a wooden beam 108 under the roof 112.
A drawback of the above system is that consumers are not familiar with the installations process and are not experts in mounting systems, and may mount the panels incorrectly if they attempted to install them without professional assistance. Jurisdictions thus often require professional installers to install solar panel systems to ensure safe and proper installation, which adds to the overall installation costs. In general, any wired in place solar or electrical system must be installed by a licensed electrical contractor. Jurisdictions also impose plan review and inspection requirements, which further adds to overall installation costs.